


what the water gave me

by hipgrab (merrymegtargaryen)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Do not repost, F/M, Splash AU, mermaid rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2020-12-12 04:22:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20977805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merrymegtargaryen/pseuds/hipgrab
Summary: Splash AU. When Ben was nine years old, an accident made him hallucinate meeting a mermaid and breathing underwater. At least, he thought it was a hallucination, but when a strangely familiar woman appears at his beach house, he starts to wonder if the whole thing was real after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is UTTER self indulgent garbage. Splash is one of my favorite movies of all time, but even if you haven't seen it, you'll still get what's going on here. Boy meets mermaid and they fall in love. For those who have seen the movie, I switched up the setting here because I'm way more familiar with the Outer Banks than I am with the New York/Martha's Vineyard area. 
> 
> For those keeping up with my computer saga, I am still without and, because I'm changing jobs, will no longer be able to use work computers to post. The fic is pre-written, it's just a matter of uploading on mobile, so bear with me please!
> 
> Enjoy!

_ July 1999 _

Nine-year-old Ben Solo sits on the ferry, his legs dangling over the side. He likes the way the ferry hums beneath him, the slap of saltwater against the side. He loves the ocean, so much so that he wants to live here. It’s nicer here--fresher and softer than D.C.. D.C. is so big and crowded that it’s suffocating sometimes. Not like here. It’s more spread out here, gives him room to breathe, and out in the water…

In the water, he is untouchable. He loves swimming, loves fitting his body to the water. He knows how to ride waves, or how to duck so that they don’t catch him. He knows how to use his foot to dig for sand dollars and how to swim against the current. He’d stay out in the water all day if his parents let him. He’d be in the water right now if it wasn’t for this trip to Ocracoke.

He admits to a little excitement at seeing the home of Blackbeard, but only a little. It isn’t as if Blackbeard is there anymore. It isn’t as if real pirates are going to alight from the  _ Queen Anne’s Revenge _ and force them all to walk the plank. 

Something flickers underneath the water and Ben squints, trying to see what it is. A dolphin, maybe?

A golden shimmer. There’s something in the water. Something floating close to the ferry. It’s definitely not a dolphin--dolphins aren’t golden. An octopus? But octopi don’t shimmer like that, do they? The ones at the aquarium don’t. And do octopi even live in the Outer Banks?

Ben pulls back, hopping up onto the railing so that he can lean over and peer down. It almost looks like a fish, but what kind of fish--

Before he can finish that thought, the college boys behind him stumble back in their attempts to catch a Frisbee, knocking Ben over the railing. He doesn’t even cry out, too surprised as the water comes hurtling up at him.

It engulfs him, sun-warmed saltwater that feels like home. He opens his eyes, looking down…

...and sees the object of the golden shimmer.

It’s a girl, he realizes. A girl with brown hair pulled into three knots and a golden tail.

_ A golden tail. _

She looks at Ben with wide eyes. He looks back with wider eyes. 

Slowly, the girl reaches out her hands. Instinctively, Ben takes them. She smiles at him as they float together. He sucks in a breath, but before he can panic, the saltwater passes easily through his lungs. It doesn’t hurt him. He can still breathe. 

_ What is going on _ ?

Before he can think too hard about it, something jerks him back up to the surface. His dad, he realizes. Han is pulling them both up to the ferry, where a dozen people pull Ben over the side, followed by his father. 

“Are you okay?!” Leia shouts, rubbing his arms.

“I’m fine,” he says, dazed. “Mom, I saw a girl down there. She had a fin.”

Leia’s expression becomes even more troubled. “Honey, the shock...you probably didn’t have enough oxygen going into your brain.”

“There  _ was _ a girl, and I could breathe the water!”

“Ben, that’s enough. Let’s go sit somewhere and rest.”

Ben glances back at the water. 

There’s nothing there.


	2. Chapter 2

_ Now _

Ben drums his fingers on the steering wheel of his car, glancing at his phone. There was a dispute with one of their merchants, but Phasma seems to have handled it. She usually does. She could run the company if she wanted--why she doesn’t snatch it right out from under Ben is beyond him. Loyalty, he supposes--though what he’s done to deserve her loyalty is also beyond him.

At twenty-nine years old, Ben is one of the most successful entrepreneurs on the east coast. He started a shipping company almost right out of college, though it was nothing before Hux and Phasma joined him and built him up. They had already been involved in the shipping industry over in England, but they found the market much more lucrative here in the States. 

Ben has found it lucrative, too. He’d known shipping was a dangerous industry to go into because of the unpredictability of it, but he has an advantage over most companies, because he was raised by a smuggler and a maritime lawyer. Not only does he know ships and ports, but he knows their rules and regulations and, as sometimes proves important, their loopholes. It’s given him the advantage over most fledgling companies and has helped bolster his competition against older and more established companies. 

And now, here he is, twenty-nine, the subject of a  _ Forbes _ article and countless local papers. He gives talks to business schools and local high schools and has been the guest of honor at countless dinners. 

And as ungrateful as it makes him feel, he can’t help asking:  _ so what now? _

He’s achieved a level of success most people don’t attain until their forties or fifties; now, not even thirty, he doesn’t know what to do with the rest of his life. He almost feels cheated out of the experience of building up a company because it all happened so fast. He had no partner standing supportively by his side, no children to think of on those late nights when he asked himself, “Is it worth it?” 

He can hear his father now.  _ It’s no good to die alone, kid _ .

Ben isn’t going to die alone.

...is he?

.

By the time Ben gets to the office, the shipping snafu has been so well-handled that it’s little more than a memory. 

“What would I do without you?” he asks Phasma.

“Have even less of a life than you already do,” she says in a bored sort of tone. 

“I have a life.”

“No you don’t,” Hux says from where his feet are propped up on Phasma’s desk. “You’re here  _ all the time _ .”

“This job is my life.”

“Disgusting,” Phasma says. “I spend more time here than you do and I bet I also get way more action than you do.”

“Well, you get action, period, and Solo doesn’t,” Hux points out. 

Ben opens his mouth to argue and then closes it, because Hux has him there. “True.”

“Why don’t you get on Tinder and try to meet someone?” Phasma suggests. 

“Because every time I get on Tinder it ends up being a disaster.”

Hux opens his mouth.

“And before you say anything, no, I’ve seen enough of your Grindr adventures to stay far away from that app.”

Hux closes his mouth.

“Then go to a bar or something,” Phasma urges. “You’re not even trying.”

“Maybe I don’t want to try,” he says patiently. “I don’t need anyone.”

“Ben, I want you to date someone so you’ll get out of my hair once in a while,” Phasma says bluntly. 

He blinks. “Well.”

“Go take the day off.”

“I’m pretty sure  _ I’m _ your boss.”

“And I’m pretty sure I can do my job a lot better without you hanging over my shoulder asking questions.”

Ben wouldn’t tolerate such talk from anyone else, but he gives Phasma a free pass because she’s Phasma. 

“What am I supposed to do with this day off?”

“I don’t know. Go for a swim. You like swimming, don’t you?”

He does—his childhood memories of the ocean stayed with him for so long that he went to UNC Wilmington for school and moved to the Outer Banks right after. It’s been a while since he went to the beach, though. Which is silly, because his house is right on the beach. He really has been engrossed in his work. Maybe he’ll take Phasma up on her suggestion. He’d like to go to the beach. He’d like to swim, even though the water is freezing right now. Maybe a day away from work is exactly what he needs.

“Okay,” he says at last. “I’ll go.”

“Wonderful,” Phasma says, her face clearing. 

Ben grabs his things. “If you need me, I’ll have my phone--”

“Yes, yes, we know,” she says, fairly pushing him out the door. “Now enjoy your day off, you silly man.”

Ben shrugs and heads out to his car. 

The whole drive home, he becomes excited at the prospect of going to the beach. Why has it been so long since he went? He could go several times a week if he wanted to. Hasn’t he earned that, as the owner and operator of an incredibly successful company? Most owners take loads of time off, traipsing around their vacation homes and lounging on private beaches. Doesn’t he deserve a day off on the beach?

.

A half an hour later finds him on the beach behind his house, laying out his towel with a packed lunch beside him. It’s late fall, which means the wind and water have a bite. He doesn’t mind; after he lathers on sunscreen, he lies on the towel, trying to read his book while the sunscreen dries. He keeps getting distracted though, by the waves crashing on sand and the gulls flying overhead and the gentle slap of water meeting water. It’s all he can do to wait it out, forcing himself to read. He never reads anymore--he’s always working, and when he’s not working, he’s thinking about work. When was the last time he read an actual book?

Finally, the sunscreen dries, and Ben fairly tears off his shirt to get in the water. There are no tourists this time of year; in fact, there are hardly any people on the beach at all, it being the middle of the working week. Ben doesn’t worry about his things as he jogs towards the water, sucking in a breath as his feet touch the cold sand and water. He runs all the way into the water, until it’s up to his waist, and then he dives under the surface, using his arms and legs to propel him. It feels so good, being submerged in saltwater. He swims out past the waves, swims until he can’t touch the ground without going underwater. He knows it can be dangerous to go out that deep, but he doesn’t care--he’s a good swimmer, and the water has never let him down yet.

He spends a long time out there, floating on the surface and swimming beneath it. Once or twice he feels something brush his leg, but he’s learned not to worry about that by now--he shares the ocean with millions of creatures, and only a few of them pose any threat. 

His mind turns back to that day, so many years ago now, when he’d fallen into the ocean and saw the girl. Logically, he knows that he had hallucinated the whole thing, that there’s no way humans can breathe underwater and that mermaids don’t exist.

But.

Some part of him can’t help feeling that it had been  _ real _ . It wasn’t, of course, but the memory of that hallucination is so  _ vivid _ . 

Out of the corner of his eye, he catches a flash of gold.

No, he didn’t. He couldn’t have. He’s just remembering that day, that’s all.

He turns back to the beach, propelling himself until the waves lift and carry him to shore. He sits down on the towel, dripping everywhere as he tears into his packed lunch. He’s just hungry, that’s all.

.

He wakes when something blots out the sun. It’s a slow waking, one that feels like part of a dream at first. He shifts slightly in his half-sleep, searching for the sun’s warmth. 

Something touches his chest. Slowly, he opens his eyes.

Staring down at him is a beautiful woman.

Her eyes are a deep hazel, framed by brown-black lashes. Pale freckles dot her face. Her hair is damp, as if she’s just been in water, and it’s held back loosely. She presses against him and he realizes that she’s naked.

“What…?” he starts to say, but then she leans forward, pressing her lips to his. Her kiss is more salty than sweet, but he likes it; he kisses back, his hand coming up to cradle her head. 

And then, in a flash, she’s gone, sprinting to the water and diving in. He sits up, open-mouthed, watching as she disappears. 

_ You’re dreaming _ , he tells himself. With a sigh, he flops back on his towel, sleep claiming him once more.

.

He wakes mid-afternoon, feeling more well-rested than he has in ages. The nap in the sun did him good. 

He sits up suddenly, remembering the naked woman and the kiss. 

_ A dream _ , he reminds himself, disappointed. Only a dream. Naked women don’t kiss him and then dive into the ocean. It just doesn’t happen.

And yet...it had felt so real.  _ She _ had felt so real. And there had been something between them, some electricity that he’s never experienced with anyone before. Not since…

Not since the girl in the water.

But that was a hallucination, and this was a dream, and neither of these people are real. They’re just figments of his imagination.

He heads inside, where he showers off the brine and then watches Netflix. He’s sleepy and content after his day in the water, and he soon drifts off on the couch. 

.

When Ben wakes again, it’s to a tapping noise. He wipes a hand over his face, groaning in disorientation. 

_ Taptaptap. _

It’s coming from the glass door, the one that leads to his backyard. Someone or something is trying to get his attention.

Ben rolls off the couch, stumbling towards the door. When he sees who stands beneath his motion-sensor light, he freezes.

Because looking in at him is the beautiful, naked woman from the beach.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UM CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT TRAILER??????

_It’s a dream, _ he thinks at first. _ You’re still asleep and this is a dream and she isn’t real. _

But if it’s a dream, he reasons, why can he feel his own heart pounding?

Slowly, he unlocks the glass door and slides it open. The woman stands there, eyes wide. Then, a smile creeps over her face. 

“Who are you?” he asks, his heart still pounding. 

She cocks her head.

“Who are you?” he asks again, desperate to hear her speak. He _ needs _ to know who she is, why his heart sings at the sight of her, why every nerve in his body is electrified.

She takes a step forward, inside the house. Slowly, her hand rests on his chest, pressing against his beating heart. Then she stands on her toes, reaching up to kiss him.

Ben doesn’t question why a naked woman has appeared to him twice today and kissed him both times, he just holds her waist and kisses her back. She still has that saltwater taste about her, but unlike earlier, her kiss now is hungry. They stumble back into his house, devouring each other. 

“What’s your name?” he asks her, his cock hard and heart pounding.

She just keeps kissing him, nipping and licking his neck, and Ben is completely lost. He lets her pull off his shirt, and he thankfully has the presence of mind to sit on the couch and pull her into his lap before _ all _ the blood drains south. He pulls himself free, stroking his cock as she kisses him, and then she’s lowering herself onto him and sighing and _ god _, this woman is beautiful. 

She rides him silly, reduces him to a sweating, panting mess of a man, and then she wraps her arms around his neck and presses her body to his and nothing has ever felt more right in Ben’s life. 

“Who are you?” he asks again, fighting through the fog in his brain.

She traces his lips, intent on her task.

“What’s your name?” he presses.

“Name,” she repeats.

“Yes, name.” He points to himself. “My name is Ben.”

“Ben.” She smiles at him. “Ben.”

“Yes.” He nods. “Ben.” He points to her. “You?”

“You.”

“No.” He points emphatically, wondering if she perhaps doesn’t understand English. He points to himself again. “Ben.” Then he points to her.

The noise she makes is inhuman, an unearthly screeching that sounds akin to an overexcited dolphin. He clamps his hands over his ears, wincing at the high pitch.

“That’s...an unusual name,” he decides, nonplussed.

She leans forward and kisses him again, and Ben’s mind goes completely blank. 

.

How Ben manages to get them both upstairs to his bed is beyond him. He can’t think straight around this woman; it’s as if instinct takes over, the instinct to make mad love to her until he can’t anymore. 

She only speaks to say his name, stroking his hair and wrapping her arms around him and coming apart beneath him. He wants, desperately, to know her name so he can do the same.

When he wakes in the morning, he thinks, for a terrible moment, that it was all a dream--that he’s alone in his bed and the beautiful naked woman is just a figment of his imagination. But then he feels warmth pressed to his back, and when he looks over his shoulder, he sees her sleeping behind him, eyes closed and lips slightly parted, naked chest rising and falling.

He rolls over, scooping her into his arms. She cracks an eye open and smiles, settling into his arms before drifting back to sleep.

_ Who is this woman? _ Not that he’s complaining, but who is she and where did she come from and _ why _? That’s what he can’t get over--why this beautiful, naked woman showed up at his door and immediately started making love to him. That sort of thing happens only in his wildest fantasies; certainly not in real life. 

But it _ has _ happened in real life, and that’s what he can’t get over. 

“Ben,” the woman sighs in her sleep.

“What is your name?” he murmurs, tracing her nose.

The woman doesn’t answer.

.

Ben’s alarm goes off a couple hours later. He takes one look at the woman, who’s blinking at being startled awake, and shoots off a text to Phasma.

_ In late today. _

The woman is already nuzzling at the back of his neck, and when he turns in her arms, she slides a leg over his hips, kissing him. He cages her body with his, biting and sucking at her neck until she lets out a broken moan.Then he moves down her body, kissing her bare skin with equal parts tenderness and hunger. She smiles at him, her hand caressing his hair. He watches her mouth part as he puts his mouth on her center, already slick with her arousal. He licks and sucks the pink flesh, rolling his tongue around her clit. Her breathing comes hard, little whines puffing out of her as he curls his tongue inside her. 

“Ben,” she breathes. “Ben.” 

He slides two fingers inside her, crooking them as his tongue returns to her clit. She’s whimpering now, hands tugging none-too-gently on his hair. He doesn’t mind; he likes the taste of her, likes how she comes apart when he touches her like this. It only takes a third finger to make her completely unravel, harsh cries filling the room as that magnificent cunt of hers clenches around his fingers. He pumps them slowly, easing her through the aftershocks; when the pulsing stops, he pulls out his fingers and licks them clean. She watches him with a hungry expression. He climbs back up her body, kissing her as he slides his cock into her. She closes her eyes, lips parted as he fills her.

“You feel amazing,” he tells her, even though he doesn’t think she understands. “You’re so beautiful. What did I do to deserve you?”

She doesn’t answer him, and he didn’t expect her to. She only lies there, lips forming soundless words as he thrusts into her. 

He doesn’t let himself come until he’s made her come first, and then he snaps his hips into hers, fucking her into the mattress. She winds her limbs around him, singing nonsense words as spends himself inside her. 

He slumps onto his side after, pulling her against his chest. Her eyes sparkle with appreciation.

“I have to go to work,” he tries to explain. 

She traces the muscles of his chest, unconcerned.

“I have to go. But you can stay here. I...god, I want you to stay here.”

It’s as if she doesn’t hear him at all. 

“Sweetheart,” he says, because he doesn’t know what else to call her. “I have to go.”

She looks up at him. “Ben.”

“Yeah.” He strokes her cheek. “That’s me.”

He wonders what her deal is. It seems like it’s more than just English not being her first language. It’s like she’s never spoken before. Which is ridiculous, of course, but he can’t think of another reason for it. He doesn’t think she’s mentally handicapped or anything, either; he can see a clear intelligence in her eyes that shows that, even if she doesn’t understand his words, she understands his eyes and his body language. Oh, yes, she _ certainly _ understands his body language. 

Reluctantly, Ben starts to pull himself out of bed. She reaches for him, pouting.

“I have to go,” he says, but he’s having trouble remembering what’s so important that he _ has _ to go. Maybe he can leave early. Or...just not show up at all…

She watches him go to the bathroom, where he turns on the shower before brushing his teeth, letting the water heat up. 

“Wanna join me?” he asks, and she furrows her brow.

He points to the shower. “Shower. Water.”

Her eyes widen.

“Oh, you know that word,” he says to himself. “Get in water?”

She gets up slowly, padding to the bathroom. He steps inside the shower and motions for her to join him. “Come on.”

She shakes her head violently and runs back to the bed. 

“Okay, so no shower,” he mutters. He showers off faster than usual; when he exits the bathroom, towel wrapped around his hips, he sees her curled up in his bed, watching him with wary eyes. He sits on the edge of the bed, rubbing her back. “You okay?”

She rests her head on his thigh, eyes closed contentedly as he rubs her back. It’s soothing to him, too, and he’s loath to get up. But too much time passes and eventually he murmurs, “I have to go.”

She whines in protest when he shifts her back to the bed, getting up to follow him to his closet. He dresses slowly, watching her examine his clothes. She takes one of his shirts from a hangar and pulls it on. It’s a white button-up, and even though it dwarfs her, she looks incredibly sexy in it. He kisses her, groaning when she deepens it.

“I would love to,” he says honestly. “But I can’t.”

She pouts again when he makes it clear that he won’t be staying. He takes her downstairs, where he makes them both coffee and bagels with cream cheese. She spits the coffee right back out, but eats her bagel with an endearing sort of gusto. Ben makes her a second, which she devours right away.

“Help yourself to anything,” he says, showing her the cabinets, fridge, and pantry stocked with food. Then he sets up Netflix and shows her how to use the remote. It’s so _ odd _, it’s like she’s never seen a remote control before. Maybe she hasn’t--though how and why, he doesn’t understand. 

“Okay,” he says when he can delay no more. “I’ve gotta go. Please don’t leave.”

She reaches for him, kissing him. He pulls back with great effort. “You’re gonna put me in the hospital,” he informs her. “I’ll see you in a few hours.” He shrugs into his suit jacket and leaves the house, locking the door behind him. He’s halfway to the car before he decides, fuck it, and turns around, unlocking the door and undressing as he walks. “You know, by the time I get there, it’ll be almost noon, and then it’ll be the lunch hour,” he babbles, but she’s already eagerly helping him out of his clothes. 

.

It’s mid-afternoon by the time Ben makes it to the office, a swagger to his step. He actually whistles on his way in, drawing strange looks from the receptionist.

“Good morning, everyone!” he says loudly.

“It’s two pm,” Hux points out. 

“It’s a beautiful day--isn’t it a beautiful day?”

Hux and Phasma stare at him, worried. 

“Ben, are you...high on something?” Phasma asks.

He considers saying, “High on life,” and then decides against it. “I’m just in a good mood, that’s all.”

“Why?” Hux asks suspiciously. “Did you get laid or something?”

Ben tries not to grin and fails. 

“Oh my god!” Hux exclaims. “You did! You did get laid!” He leans forward. “Tell us about it!”

“I’m not telling you about it,” Ben says, but he’s still grinning. 

“Do we know her?”

“No.”

“Do _ you _ know her?”

“In the Biblical sense.”

“Ben!”

“I didn’t know her until last night,” he concedes. “I still don’t know her name.”

Hux barks with laughter.

“_ Men _,” Phasma sighs.

“She’s still at my place,” Ben admits.

“And you’re _ here _?” Hux demands. “What the hell are you doing?! Go back and shag that woman before she comes back to her senses!”

“Gee, thanks.”

“I think what Hux is _ trying _ to say,” Phasma says with a shrewd look at the redhead, “is that you don’t want to keep a woman waiting.”

“But--”

“Benjamin, you know damn well we’ve got things under control here,” Phasma says imperiously. “Go home and enjoy yourself.”

Ben starts to hesitate again, but like yesterday, Phasma is already pushing him out the door. “Go! Shoo!”

Left with no choice but to head home, Ben gets back in his car and makes the drive south.

He’s afraid that she won’t be there when he gets home, that she’ll have picked up and left. And he would deserve it, too. Hux and Phasma were right; how stupid was he to leave a gorgeous woman like that at home while he went to _ work _? 

But she’s still sitting on the couch when he gets there, watching something on TV. She turns her eyes to him and smiles a dazzling smile.

“Ben!”

“Hi,” he breathes, crossing the room in three strides. She falls back on the couch, pulling him over her.

“Hi,” she says back.

He raises an eyebrow. “Talking more, I see.”

“Talking,” she repeats, and then she’s pulling him free of his clothes and he can’t think about anything but being inside her. She seems to have the same objective, judging from the way she’s rocking against him. He enters her with one swift thrust, groaning as her walls flutter around him. 

“Ben,” she sighs. 

They come together, backs arched and sweat beading on their skin. Ben collapses on top of her, pinning her to the couch. She doesn’t seem to mind; she has her limbs wrapped around him, humming a nonsensical sort of tune.

Finally, he props up his head to look at her. “Who are you?”

And then she does something that startles him.

She says, “I’m no one.”


	4. Chapter 4

Ben stares at her. “You talk.”

“I learned. From TV,” she explains.

He stares harder. “You learned to speak...from watching TV?”

She nods. “Yes.” 

“I…” He doesn’t even know how to respond to that. “Really?”

“I’m still learning,” she says, choosing her words with care. 

“O...kay.” He sits up. “So you...couldn’t speak before?”

“Not the way you speak.” She sits up too, wrapping her arms around her legs.

She must mean that she speaks a different language. “Where are you from?”

She laughs. “No.”

“No?” 

“No,” she says firmly. 

“Okay.” He considers her. “Why are you here?”

She smiles. “You.”

“Me?”

“You.” 

He shakes his head. “I don’t understand.”

She leans forward to kiss him. “Don’t understand.”

He laughs at the command. “Okay.” He lets her pull him upstairs and to the bed, where they make love again. And again. And again.

.

“What’s your name in English?” Ben asks when they lie in a tangled, exhausted heap after. 

“I don’t know how to say it in English,” she admits. 

“What should I call you?”

“What do you want to call me?”

“I don’t know.” He tucks her hair behind her ear. “What does your name mean?”

“It means...the light from the sun.”

“That’s pretty.” He thinks for a long moment. “What about Rey?”

“Rey?”

“Like a ray of sunshine.”

She smiles. “Rey.”

“You like it?”

“I like it.” She kisses him. “Rey. Rey, Rey, Rey.”

“Rey,” he murmurs. “My Rey.”

.

It’s late morning by the time Ben finally gets out of bed. Rey stays there, watching him through the bathroom’s open door as he brushes his teeth and showers. When he gets out to shave, she pads to the bathroom, leaning against the counter to watch him. He tries not to get distracted by her, focusing on trimming the hair that’s grown since he last shaved. 

After he washes his face, Rey reaches forward, touching the smooth skin. She smiles at him, and Ben feels absurdly like the star of a Gillette commercial. 

“What do you say we go out today?” he asks her, resting his hands on her waist. 

“Out?”

“Yeah. Go visit the shops--maybe get you some clothes. Not that you don’t look fantastic in mine.” His cock twitches at the thought of her in his shirt, moaning as he’d fucked her. 

Rey seems to sense his arousal, because she smiles, pulling at the towel around his hips. He spins her around, bending her over the bathroom counter so that they’re facing their reflections. Bracing one hand on the mirror, the other strokes his cock. Rey watches their reflections as he slides into her, her mouth forming an O shape as he fills her. 

“You are so beautiful,” he tells her, thrusting slowly inside her. 

Rey grips the sink, whimpering as he fills her and fucks her. Sometimes, it feels like she was made for Ben, and he for her. He’s had sex and dated, but nothing has ever felt like this. The connection between them is so strong, so  _ visceral _ , that it’s like they were made for each other. 

Ben has never believed in soulmates or anything like that; if soulmates existed, he’s sure, his parents wouldn’t have gotten married. But something about Rey makes him think that soulmates  _ could _ exist. He barely knows her, and she barely knows him, and yet...it’s as if they’ve known each other for years. 

But maybe he’s just getting carried away. This is the longest one night stand he’s ever had--maybe he’s just fixating on her. 

Or maybe it’s something more than that.

He reaches around, rubbing Rey’s clit. She keens against him, pushing her hips to meet his.

“Ben,” she gasps. “Oh…”

He rubs her until she comes apart on his cock. His thrusts become harder, more erratic as he seeks release.

When he cums, he pulls out to spend on her back, watching in admiration as his cum lands on her tanned skin. 

“God, you’re beautiful,” he murmurs.

She wriggles against him. “Ben…”

He grabs the hand towel and wipes off her back and his dick, cleaning them both up. 

“Wanna shower?” he asks, knowing she’s just as sweaty and covered in sex as he is.

But she shakes her head. “No. I want to eat.”

For some reason, Ben thinks it’s remarkably sexy that she doesn’t want to shower off the sweat and sex. That she wants to just...leave it on.

While he puts on clothes, she shrugs into his old shirt and then pads down the stairs. He makes them scrambled eggs with peppers and onions, which Rey devours as if she’s starving. She may well be--they barely ate yesterday.

“Why do I need clothes?” she asks, licking the grease from her lips.

Ben considers. It’s...a good question. He wouldn’t mind just keeping her here, letting her walk around in his shirts and nothing else. But she’d get tired of that eventually, and it would be unsuitable if they left the house or had company over.

_ Had company over _ . Already he’s thinking about a future with her.

“Because you can’t wear mine forever.” He cocks his head. “Where  _ are _ your clothes, anyway?”

She takes her time scraping her plate. “I lost them.”

“How?”

“Why?” she asks, her eyes flashing. 

He blinks, taken aback by her sudden anger. “Rey...you have to admit...you’re shrouded in mystery.”

She furrows her brow. “What?”

“I don’t know anything about you,” he says. “Where you came from, why you ended up at my house without any clothes...why you didn’t know how to speak English or why you started kissing me for no reason.”

“Don’t ask me questions,” she says, and suddenly she looks very sad. “Please.”

This, too, takes him aback, but it makes him wonder if something horrible happened to her. “Okay. No more questions.”

Her shoulders sag in relief. “I’ll wear clothes,” she decides. “If you want.”

“I don’t, really,” he admits. “But I can’t stay home with you forever.”

He wishes he could. He really, really does. And maybe it’s just a temporary infatuation, but somehow, it feels like it’s more than that.

.

Ben quickly realizes that he has nothing for Rey to wear outside of the house. All his clothes are much too big for her and obviously a man’s clothes. Even his underwear is too big, and there’s no question of her wearing his shoes.

It’s only temporary, he remembers; they’ll stop at the first shop they can find and she can change into normal clothes there.

He puts her in a t-shirt and boxer shorts, which look like pajamas but are better than nothing at all, and then puts her in his car. Rey’s eyes are wide as he drives down the coastal road; she presses her cheek against the glass, watching the scenery. 

“You like it here?” he asks carefully.

“Yes,” she says softly. “It’s...different.”

Different from what, he wonders?

.

The first stop they make is at Target. Ben leaves Rey in the car while he buys a few things that he thinks are roughly her size. His guesswork isn’t too shabby--Rey fits into the underwear, sports bra, and summer dress, though the flip-flops he got her are a little big. No matter--she can actually go in the store and try on the next clothes they buy.

He takes her to the downtown shopping square, which is mostly for tourists but has lots of nice boutiques. He and Rey wander for a while, window-shopping. She seems entranced with the tourist town, asking him excited questions. Her excitement is childlike and infectious, and Ben finds himself enjoying the town more than he ever has.

It takes little convincing to get Rey inside a designer boutique, where the saleslady exclaims over her cotton dress and sports bra and too-big shoes. She makes Ben sit outside the changing room while she brings Rey an array of clothes, most of them blue and beige. Rey looks good in all of them, though some of them are so expensive that Ben knows he can’t in good conscious buy them for a woman he barely knows. 

Rey ends up wearing a blue shift dress and tan ballet flats, the general effect making her look airy and ethereal. As Ben’s paying for the items, the woman leans across the counter. “You should really take her to the lingerie store down the street,” she whispers. “A pretty girl like her shouldn’t be wearing  _ Target underwear _ and a  _ sports bra _ .”

“I’ll keep that suggestion in mind,” he says, smiling at Rey. 

They do visit the lingerie store, where a tiny old lady named Maz immediately takes them in hand. She’s horrified by Rey’s underwear situation and sets her up nicely with several matching pairs of bras and underwear in assorted colors, as well as a couple pieces that are more for Ben’s enjoyment than anything. Once again, Rey looks good in all of them, and Ben is happy to shell out the money for it. 

“I like these clothes,” she tells him as they put everything in the car.

“Better than mine?”

“Mine are prettier,” she decides.

He kisses the side of her head. “Pretty clothes for a pretty girl.”

Her nose scrunches in a smile. “You think I’m pretty?”

He huffs out a laugh. “Sweetheart, I think you’re  _ beautiful _ .”

“Are they different?”

He considers this. “I think beautiful means more than pretty.”

“And you think I’m beautiful?”

“I really, really do.”

She beams. “I think you’re beautiful, too.”

He laughs again. “Thank you.”

She suddenly points. “What’s that?”

Ben follows her gaze. “Ice cream. You want some?”

“What is it?”

“What... _ is _ it?” He thinks for a moment. “It’s...cold, and sweet, and creamy.”

“Is it food?”

“Yes.”

“Then I want some.”

Rey  _ loves _ ice cream, as it turns out, and has little care for how messily she eats her cone. Ben doesn’t mind; he finds it adorable, as he finds nearly everything she does. 

“What now?” she asks when she’s finished her cone--and his. 

“I don’t know. What do you want to do? The world is our oyster.”

“Oyster?”

“It’s a shell; it makes pearls,” he explains.

“Oh, I know what those are,” she says, smiling. “I have some.”

“Oysters?” 

“Pearls.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Where, exactly, are these pearls?”

She shrugs. “Where I live.”

“And where is that?”

“Somewhere else,” she says vaguely. 

Ben decides not to press the subject. “We could go to the beach.”

“Why?” she asks, eyes flashing again.

He blinks. “I just...thought it could be fun.”

“I don’t want to go,” she says at once.

“Okay, no beach.” 

First the shower, now the beach. Is she afraid of water?

“Do you want to go home?” he asks.

Her eyes flash again. “I don’t want to go home!”

“I meant  _ my _ home,” he says quickly.

She looks abashed. “Oh. Yes. I want to go back to your home.” After a long moment, she murmurs, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He reaches across the table, stroking her knuckle with his thumb. “Can I...help you? With anything?”

She smiles slightly. “You do so much for me.”

“I could do more, if you wanted.”

She squeezes his hand. “Just take me to your home.”

.

Ben and Rey are barely through the door before they’re tearing at each other’s clothes, eager to get them off. He fucks her on the stairs, backs arched and underwear shoved to the side. When he finishes, she giggles, winding her arms around him.

“I liked going out,” she tells him. “But I like this better.”

Ben kisses her. “You and me both, kid.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, speaking of mermaid vagina...did anyone else see The Lighthouse?

Ben spends the rest of the day and all of the next day at home with Rey. They leave once to get food from the grocery store, but for the most part, they lounge in his bed or on the couch with little to no clothes, barely paying attention to anything that isn’t each other. 

At last, Ben knows that he can no longer put off going to work. He goes in late on Friday, leaving Rey with Netflix and a stocked fridge. He wishes she had a phone so he could text her while he was at work, but he’d have to settle for coming home early and hoping nothing happened in the interim. 

“That girl never did come to her senses, did she?” Hux asks wryly when he sees Ben.

“Apparently not,” Ben says cheerfully. “She’s still at my house, watching  _ The Great British Bake Off _ and eating cereal.”

“You’re more of a casanova than I expected,” Hux says, sounding impressed. “Will she be coming to the party tomorrow?”

“The party?” Ben repeats blankly.

Phasma groans. “The  _ investors’ _ party, Ben! It’s a very big deal!”

“Right! Right,” he says, remembering. “I forgot.”

“I guess that will happen when you take two days off work to fool around,” she says wryly. “Not that I’m complaining--the quiet around here was productive. But yes, there  _ is _ a party tomorrow night, and it’s black tie.”

“I’ll be there,” he promises. “In fact, I’m going home right now so I can take Rey to get a dress.”

“Ray? Isn’t that a man’s name?” 

“Rey, with an e. It’s Spanish.” 

“She’s Spanish?”

“I don’t know what she is,” Ben admits. “But she’ll be there. I think.” He picks up his car keys. “Cheerio.”

As he leaves, he distinctly hears Phasma ask, “Did he really just say ‘cheerio’?”

Ben goes home in a good mood, glad to have the excuse to spend more time with Rey. 

To his surprise, she’s not watching TV when he gets back--she isn’t anywhere downstairs.

“Rey?” he calls, walking up the stairs. “Rey, where are you?”

He doesn’t hear anything. He peers in the bedroom, wondering if she’s taking a nap, but she isn’t there. What  _ is _ there is a closed bathroom door and a gurgling sound.

“Rey?” he asks, knocking on the door. 

“Don’t come in!” she calls. 

He blinks at the door. “Uh...why not?”

“Just...please don’t!” she says. The gurgling noise persists. 

“Rey, what’s going on in there?” he asks, starting to become worried.

“Nothing!” she says frantically. 

He tries the door, but it’s locked. 

“Ben, please!” she begs. “Just leave me alone.”

“Why is the door locked?” he asks, anxiety creeping into his voice.

“I want to be alone!”

“Why?”

When she doesn’t answer, he announces, “I’m coming in.”

“Ben, don’t!”

But he reaches above the door frame for the little pick, pushing it into the pinhole until it clicks. He swings the door open…

...and sees Rey sitting on the floor, wrapped in a towel. Behind her, the tub is draining water.

“Are you okay?” he asks, his heart still pounding.

“Yes,” she says, getting to her feet. 

He gestures to the tub. “You were taking a bath.”

She looks down. “Uh-huh.”

“Why didn’t you say so?”

“I was shy.”

He stares at her. “You were  _ shy _ ?”

She raises her head with a defiant look. “Shy,” she confirms. She walks past him, still keeping the towel around her body.

Ben drags a hand through his hair. “Well, listen, I need to ask you a favor.”

“A favor?” she asks, sitting on the bed and looking at him.

He nods. “There’s this big party tomorrow, it’s a really big deal, and I have to be there. Do you wanna go with me?”

She smiles. “A party?”

“Yeah. A fancy party. We’d have to buy you another dress.”

Her eyes light up at the notion. “Another dress?”

He laughs. “Come on and put some clothes on.”

She scrambles to obey, selecting some underwear and one of the outfits from their shopping excursion. She looks lovely in the matching blue silk bra and underwear, so much so that he almost regrets it when she pulls on clothes. 

Truthfully, Ben has no idea where to buy women’s formal wear, so he texts Phasma. She responds in minutes with a list of stores, and a side note that she and Hux are both dying to meet this woman. 

Ben doesn’t know how he feels about introducing Rey to Hux and Phasma. On the one hand, they’re his business partners and the closest thing he has to friends. On the other, they exist in a completely different sphere than Rey. He’s afraid they won’t understand her, won’t find her as beautiful and funny and sweet as he does. More than that, some part of him fears that they’ll try to pry him away from her, that they’ll find her unsuitable or a distraction to Ben and they’ll try to get rid of her. He doesn’t think he could bear that. In the short time he’s known Rey, he’s become extremely attached to her. He doesn’t want to imagine a life without her, because he doesn’t think he was truly happy before he met her. 

So in many ways, he doesn’t want Hux and Phasma to meet Rey, because then they can’t disapprove of her. Then they can’t try to pry her away. 

He knows he’s overreacting. It’s entirely possible that Hux and Phasma will like Rey, will even go so far as to adore her, and then he’ll have nothing to worry about. They might like the influence she has over Ben, might be happy that she’s given him something to think of other than work. 

He just has to hope for the best.

.

Per Phasma’s recommendation, Ben and Rey visit a dress shop that claims to sell dresses “for every occasion”. Cocktail dresses, prom dresses, even wedding dresses--and Rey loves them all. If it were up to her, she’d try on every dress in the store. Thankfully, it’s not up to her. Ben chooses a few he thinks would suit and patiently stands outside while she tries them on. She looks good in all of them, of course, but she seems distracted.

“Do you not like them?” he asks.

She points to one of the wedding dresses on display nearby. “I want to wear that.”

Ben chokes on a laugh. “You can’t wear that.”

“Why not?” 

“Because it’s a wedding dress,” he explains, bemused. “You can only wear that if you’re getting married.”

“Oh.” Her face turns regretful. “I’ll wear this one, I guess.”

For a wild moment, Ben is tempted to buy the wedding dress anyway, just to make her happy. But that would be...beyond insane. He’s not going to buy her a wedding dress. 

Although...he has to admit that the idea of her in one is certainly appealing. She’d look lovely.

He shakes his head. He’s in too deep--he’s already envisioning his wedding with a woman he’s known a few days. He needs to slow down. 

“Isn’t there a dress you like? Besides the wedding dress?”

She considers, then rifles through the dresses in her changing room before selecting a pink silk dress. “This one.”

“I like that one,” he says quickly. 

“Yeah.” She holds it up, inspecting it, but he can see her eyes flicker to the wedding dress. 

“You want to try it on, don’t you?” 

“Yes,” she says at once. 

He sighs. He supposes it can’t hurt anything, to see her try on a wedding dress. It’s not like they’re getting married. It’s not like he’s buying it for her. She’s just going to try it on, that’s all.

Rey eagerly takes the dress off the display and carries it to the changing room, barely able to cram the tulle confection in the room. She’s in there for a long time, so long that Ben almost asks if she needs help, but then she emerges and takes his breath away.

The dress is beautiful on her. The bodice is embroidered with silver thread, dipping down to wide, tulle skirts. When she moves, the dress bobs and sways, dancing with her every step.

“I love it,” she says, turning in front of the mirror.

“So do I,” Ben admits before he can help himself.

She smiles at him through the mirror. Ben suddenly feels too hot, his heart beating too fast. He sits on one of the cushioned benches, determinedly not looking at Rey in her wedding dress. 

“Ben?”

“Let’s, uh, let’s go,” he says, clearing his throat. “It’s warm in here, I...I need some fresh air.”

Rey wisely does not pursue the matter, instead disappearing into the changing room with a rustle. A few minutes later, she comes out in the clothes she’d worn here, carrying the pink dress. Ben pays for it at the register and ushers them out of the mall. The car ride home is silent and tense.

“Ben?” Rey finally asks when they pull up in the driveway. “Are you mad about the dress?”

He expels a gusty breath. “No, I’m not mad.”

“You’re not?”

He puts the car in park and then grasps her hand. “No. I’m not. I freaked out a little because of how much I liked seeing you in the dress.”

“I don’t understand.”

He takes a deep breath. “I’ve never felt this intensely about someone I’ve known for such a short time. I barely know you, but I already care about you a lot. And that’s kind of scary for me.”

“Why is it scary?” she asks, nose scrunched adorably. “I care about you a lot too.”

His heart thumps in his chest. “You do?”

“Yes.” She leans forward, smiling. “Ben...I love you.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GAH I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to update this week! We're moving offices at work and a lot's been going on and it just completely slipped my mind. Have a chapter!

The party for the investors is held at a very upscale resort with a beautiful view of the ocean. Men in suits and women in slinky dresses and glimmering jewels wander the cedar terrace, champagne in hand.

Rey is in awe as Ben guides her into the foyer, hand on her back. Immediately, a banquet server offers them bacon wrapped dates and champagne, which Rey takes eagerly. Ben knows many of the guests, mostly investors and board members, and it’s all he can do to tear his attention away from Rey and greet them. 

“This is my girlfriend, Rey,” he tells them, and everyone smiles with interest at her. Ben’s brought dates to parties like this before, and it’s always a subject of gossip--everyone wants to know who’s going to become the lucky Mrs. Solo. 

Ben is still reeling from Rey’s admission yesterday. He hadn’t known how to respond at the time and had halfheartedly thanked her before bolting from the car. If his behavior upset Rey, she hasn’t shown it.

The thing is, it isn’t that what she said upset Ben. 

It had scared him.

It had scared him because he thinks that, on some level, he loves her too.

That should be impossible, he knows. He doesn’t know her well enough to love her. And yet…

And yet, he feels as if he’s known her his whole life. It feels like she’s always been there, always at the back of his mind. He can’t explain it, and maybe he’s afraid to try. All he knows is that in the car, he was dangerously close to repeating the words back to her.

Hux and Phasma descend on him in a matter of minutes, neither of them doing anything to conceal their interest in the woman beside him. 

“Who’s this?” Phasma asks, examining Rey.

Ben strokes Rey’s back soothingly, seeing her start at the taller woman. “This is Rey. Rey, this is Phasma and Hux.”

“The pleasure is  _ all _ mine,” Hux assures her, looking gleeful. “So, what drew you to our boy?”

Rey looks up at Ben, smiling. “That’s a secret.”

“I like her,” Hux decides. 

“Not to be that person, but Ben, you should really mingle,” Phasma says, glancing around the room. “The investors will feel slighted if you don’t.”

“Right, right.” Ben glances at Rey. “Ready to meet a bunch of rich snobs?”

“Oh, don’t worry about her--I’ll keep Rey company while you’re making the rounds,” Hux insists. “I want to know  _ aaalllll _ about her.”

Ben clenches Rey’s arm. “I don’t know…”

“I’ll be okay,” Rey murmurs. “You go.”

His grip relaxes. “Okay. Phas, get ready to intervene before he bores her to death.”

“Hardy-har-har.”

Phasma steers Ben to say hello to the rich snobs while Hux spirits away Rey. As reprehensible as Hux’s dating habits may be, he is, thankfully, extremely gay, which means Ben doesn’t have to worry about him hitting on Rey or otherwise making her uncomfortable. And Ben will give him this, he has proven to be a perfect gentleman when the occasion calls for it.

He just hopes this occasion calls for it.

Nearly an hour goes by with Ben saying hello to various people, pretending to care about their significant others and their kids and their jobs, before Phasma finally tells him, “This is the last one.” He musters one final grin, gives them three to five minutes of his attention, and then jokes about losing his date and excuses himself. 

He finds Rey and Hux on the terrace, Hux blathering on about something while Rey dutifully listens.

“Is he boring you yet?” Ben teases, kissing Rey. She beams up at him as he wraps her in his arms. Hux tactfully dismisses himself.

“He talked so much,” Rey whispers. “And asked a lot of questions.”

“He’s curious about you,” Ben says, stroking her back. “They all are.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re with me,” he admits. “People wonder when I’m going to get married.”

Her face falls. “When are you?”

“I don’t know,” he laughs, and then catches the look on her face. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

She shakes her head, starting to pull away, but he doesn’t let her go. 

“Rey? What’s wrong?”

She shakes her head again. “Nothing.”

“It’s something.” He tries to look into her eyes, but she keeps pulling away. “Sweetheart…”

“I wish you wouldn’t get married,” she says at last. 

He relaxes. “I don’t have immediate plans.” He pauses, stroking her cheek. “Unless  _ you _ \--”

“I can’t marry you,” she says, stumbling away from him.

Ben feels a stab through his heart. “Why not?”

“I...I would miss my home,” she says, still not looking at him. 

“The home you won’t tell me about?” He doesn’t know why it comes out of him like that--angry and harsh. Maybe because she just said she can’t marry him. 

Her eyes finally flicker to his. “Your voice sounds…” She swallows. “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” he lies. 

She reaches for him, and he relaxes under her touch. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I...I want to tell you everything. But you would hate me.”

And that...surprises him. “I could never hate you.”

Her smile is wry. “You would. If you knew. Everything would be...different.”

He considers this. “Do you think you’ll ever tell me?”

“I don’t know,” she admits. 

That hurts Ben a lot more than he’d care to admit. “Come on,” he says, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Let’s go home.”

.

They don’t make love that night. Instead they lie there, staring at the ceiling, each dwelling on the words exchanged between them. 

In the morning, Hux texts Ben and asks if he wants to go to the gym. Ben accepts, because he doesn’t think he can be around Rey right now. After last night, after what she said…

She looks sad when he leaves, and he almost considers staying at home. But he doesn’t know what he would say if he did stay, so he goes.

Hux is wearing a ridiculously stylish workout outfit as he jogs on the treadmill. Ben, in a much less stylish t-shirt and athletic shorts, gets on the treadmill beside him. He wonders how to broach the subject of Rey, but as it turns out, he doesn’t need to.

“I’ve been thinking,” Hux puffs. “About your girlfriend.”

Ben raises an eyebrow. “What about her?”

“There’s something not right.”

Ben frowns. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think she’s up to no good. I think she has an agenda.”

“An  _ agenda _ ?”

“You’re a wildly successful entrepreneur and CEO,” Hux points out. “You own a major shipping company and you’re not even thirty.”

“So?”

“So, you don’t think she might have known all this before meeting you?”

Ben blinks. “She isn’t like that.”

“Oh, isn’t she?” Hux slows down his treadmill so he can talk with more ease. “She comes out of  _ nowhere _ and just...falls in love with you? Just like that? I mean, how did you even meet?”

“It’s...hard to explain…”

“She said she found you on the beach behind your house. Isn’t that just a little  _ too _ coincidental? That she just  _ happened _ to wander onto the beach conveniently located behind your house?”

Ben’s heart begins to sink. He doesn’t tell Hux that she was naked, too, because he feels that that would only confirm Hux’s suspicions. “She couldn’t even talk when she met me, she...she didn’t know English.”

“Well, she picked it up awfully quickly.”

She did, at that. Ben starts to feel sick. 

“She’s a gold-digger, Ben. She’s playing a clueless little idiot to make you feel sorry for her and trip over yourself to take care of her, but she’s playing her cards just right--”

“You’re wrong,” Ben says flatly, slamming the palm of his hand on the stop button. The treadmill slows to a stop. “She isn’t a gold digger, she’s genuine.”

Hux huffs out a laugh. “If you say so. But see how much she loves you once you stop buying her things.”

Ben wants to punch him. Instead, he storms to the locker room, where he grabs his things and heads home. 

He wants to talk to Rey. He  _ needs _ to talk to her. Needs to know that she isn’t a gold-digger, that she isn’t after him for his money, that she really does love him. 

His heart is pounding when he gets home. Rey isn’t in the living room or the kitchen, or anywhere downstairs. He hears running water and knows she’s in the bathroom. He takes the stairs two at a time, heart pounding harder as he gets closer to her. 

“Rey,” he says, pushing open the bathroom door.

And then stops short.

Because Rey is sitting in his bathtub, and where her legs should be, there’s a magnificent, glittering gold fin.


	7. Chapter 7

Ben stares at Rey for a long moment. She sits in the bathtub, frozen. 

“Ben…”

He steps closer, staring at her fin. This...can’t be possible. It  _ can’t _ be. That’s got to be a fake tail or, or  _ something _ . “What...the  _ fuck _ ?”

Her tail twitches and he leaps back, terrified of how  _ alive _ it is.

“Ben,” she says again, her eyes sad. “I told you.” 

“You never told me you were a fucking fish,” he says, and she winces. He feels angry, for some reason. Angry and scared and confused. “You never told me  _ this _ .”

“I told you everything would be different,” she says, and her voice cracks. “I told you you would hate me.”

He leans back against the counter, taking a deep breath. Oh god. “I don’t hate you,” he says, trying to control his voice. “I’m...angry, but I don’t hate you.”

“You do,” she says, and tears fall down her cheeks. “You think I’m disgusting. You called me a fucking fish.”

He closes his eyes. “Rey, this is...a lot to process.” He opens his eyes again, just to make sure he’s not imagining it. “You...are a mermaid.”

“Yes,” she whispers. 

“... _ how _ ?”

She sits up. “What do you mean, how?”

“I mean, mermaids aren’t...real.”

“I’m real,” she says softly. “I’m very, very real.”

He sinks to the floor. “But  _ how _ ?”

“I don’t know how,” she admits. “I never knew many mermaids.”

“What about your parents?”

A shadow crosses her face. “I don’t know what happened to them. One day when I was little, they just...disappeared. I never saw them again.”

“What about the other mermaids?”

“They swam in a pod.” She looks bitter. “They didn’t want me.”

“I’m sorry.” The idea of a mermaid pod...astounds him. Just as the idea of mermaids being real astounds him. It’s all so much to take in.  _ Rey is a mermaid. _

“You live...around here?”

“Farther out to sea, but yes.” She tucks her hair behind her ear. 

“Why did you come on shore?” He licks his lips. “Why did you...come to me?”

Her eyes are sad again. “You don’t remember me, do you?” She heaves a sigh. “It was a long time ago.”

And suddenly, Ben remembers that summer twenty years ago, when he’d fallen off the ferry to Ocracoke.

“You were the girl in the water!”

She smiles, relieved. “You  _ do _ remember.”

He runs a hand through his hair, heart thumping wildly against his ribcage. “I thought...I thought I’d made it up. I thought you were a hallucination from being underwater so long. But all this time...you were  _ real _ . You  _ are _ real.” He kneels beside the tub, grasping her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know if you remembered,” she admits. 

That’s fair; he  _ hadn’t _ remembered at first. And he had reacted horribly. He winces at the memory. “I’m sorry for the things I said.”

“You were scared.”

“I was. I...Rey, I’m so sorry, I don’t...I don’t hate you or think you’re a fish.”

She cups his cheek. “But everything is different.”

“Well...yes,” he concedes. “But it has to be. I...I understand, now.” He turns his head to kiss the palm of her hand. “You have no idea how scared I was...Hux thinks you’re...he thinks you’re a gold-digger.”

“A what?”

“A woman who attaches herself to a man for his money,” he explains. “He thinks you came after me because I’m rich.”

“You’re rich?” she asks in genuine confusion, her nose scrunching up.

He laughs. “I’m rich. I have lots of money. And you didn’t even know that.”

“And Hux thinks I...want it?”

“Yes. He does.”

“That’s stupid,” she declares. “I can’t use money in the ocean.”

Ben laughs so hard his sides hurt. He laughs in happiness and in relief, unable to believe the turn of events. Rey is a mermaid and he doesn’t care. He’s happy. She isn’t after his money, she only wants  _ him _ . Hux is a moron.

“How did you know how to find me?” he asks when he’s calmed down. 

“I scented you,” she says as if this should be obvious. 

“Scented me?”

“In the ocean. I was near the shore,” she explains. “And I scented you and I knew it was you. So I swam to find you. And there you were, sleeping on the beach. I got out to see you and you were so beautiful. I got scared when you started to wake up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you after. I knew I had to be with you. So I came back.”

“I’m glad you did,” he says honestly. “Meeting you again has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

She beams at him. “It’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me, too.”

He kisses her, tangling his fingers in her hair as he pulls her closer. She reciprocates at once, eagerly leaning into his touch. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” he says, pulling back. “How are you able to turn into a human?”

“When I’m dry,” she says, as if this is very obvious. “I’m a mermaid when I’m wet and a human when I’m dry.”

“Oh. Right.” He looks at her fin, still golden and shimmering. “Can I...touch it?”

“Of course.” 

He strokes the scales, moving downward along her tail. They’re smoother than he expected, but still a little rough, a little ridged. Rey shows him how to touch her, making downward strokes and minding the thin fan-tails at her sides. A scale pops off when he touches it, and he worries he was too hard, but she just laughs at his concern.

“It’s like losing a hair--it happens. A new scale will grow there soon.”

That relieves him--he’d hate to hurt her. 

“Does it hurt?” he asks. “To have legs?”

She shakes her head. “It’s different, but it doesn’t hurt. Why?”

“There was this story I was obsessed with when I was a kid. It was about a mermaid who traded her voice for legs so she could be with this prince she fell in love with. Every step felt like a knife in her foot.”

“That’s not true,” she huffs. 

“I just wanted to make sure.” He reaches in the water, plucking out her fallen scale. “Can I keep this?”

“Yes.” 

He sets it to the side. “Rey, what happens next?”

A shadow passes over her face. “I don’t know. I like being here with you, but…”

“But,” he urges.

“But...the sea is my home,” she says softly. 

“It can still be your home,” he says, and he realizes he sounds a little desperate. “I live right on the beach. You can come and go as you please--a few days at sea, a few days with me. And if you ever get tired of me, you can just go on out to sea and not worry about me.”

“I’d never leave you,” she murmurs, stroking his cheek. “I love you too much.”

“I’m not that special,” he says wryly.

“You are to me.”

He kisses her. “Well? What do you think?”

“I think...it’s a good idea,” she decides, smiling. 

“Good,” he says, relieved. 

“You know what else I think?” 

“No, what?”

She smiles. “I think you should get me out of this water so I can do things to you I can’t do with my fin.”

He kisses her again, this time with hunger, and reaches down to pull the the drain. As the water begins to gurgle down the tub, he lifts her into his arms, carrying her bridal-style to the bed. He uses a towel to wipe her dry, loosening a few more scales, and then her human legs are falling open and Ben settles himself between them. She pulls off his shirt and shucks down his shorts, and then she wraps those legs around his waist and whispers, “Please, Ben.”

He needs no urging; he slides inside her, groaning at the damp heat of her. She peppers his face with kisses, her fingers stroking his hair as he thrusts slowly inside her. He braces himself on one hand and uses the other to stroke her clit, bringing her closer and closer to the edge. When they come, they come together. 

.

After, when they lie in a tangled heap, Ben lifts his head to look at her. 

“I love you, Rey.”

She smiles at him, her eyes bright. “I love you, Ben.”

Can life be lived this way? With a mermaid? He doesn’t know, but he’s willing to try.


	8. Chapter 8

As it turns out, life  _ can _ be lived this way. 

Rey spends almost every day in the ocean, slipping beneath the waves while Ben leaves for work. She’s always back by sundown, smile on her face and treasure in her hand.

It’s sweet, the way she brings things back for him, things she finds pretty. They’re usually shells or sand dollars, but once she learns how valuable pearls are to humans, she brings back a bunch of them. Ben keeps them, deciding that when he has enough, he’s going to have them set as jewelry for Rey. 

She still spends time on land, and sometimes spends the day lounging around the house. Ben likes coming home to her; just as much, he imagines, as she likes coming home to him. She usually spends the weekends with him, keeping those human legs wrapped around him. Sometimes they go out and he shows her more of the human world--restaurants and museums and movies. She likes movies--loves them, in fact. She finds the stories fascinating. 

For a while, everything feels good. It feels right. Rey gets to have him and the ocean, and he gets to have her. It’s fair. It works. 

That doesn’t last forever.

.

Ben comes to work one morning with a hickey. He does nothing to hide it, because they’re all adults here, and because he’s secretly kind of proud of it. 

Hux’s eyes narrow. “Still seeing that gold-digger?”

“Don’t you ever call her that again,” Ben says sharply. “Rey is not a gold digger.” Though, now that he thinks about it, that’s not  _ technically _ true, because she does, in fact, bring back gold from those pirate ships. 

“I’m sorry you’re blinded to her faults,” Hux snaps. “But she’s only after you for your money, and if you can’t see that--”

“I’m not having this argument,” Ben says, still in that sharp tone of voice. “Drop it now.”

Hux does, but with a sour look on his face. 

It makes Ben uneasy, how fiercely Hux believes this of Rey. He supposes it’s a mark of how loyal the other man is to him, that he would want to protect him from women who are up to no good, but something about it feels off to Ben. 

He asks Phasma about it later, when Hux is out getting lunch.

“I don’t know what his problem is,” she admits. “But I wouldn’t push him. He can get...nasty.”

This surprises Ben, who’s never known Phasma to back down from a challenge. “Has he been nasty to you?”

Something flashes across her eyes before she shakes her head. “No. Just...don’t piss him off, that’s all.”

“He’s pissing  _ me _ off, calling my girlfriend a gold-digger.”

“Ben, I believe you that she isn’t,” Phasma says. “But she lives with you, you buy her everything...it’s easy to see why Hux thinks she’s after your money, or at least, a comfortable life where she doesn’t have to work.”

Ben supposes she has a point, but how can he explain to her that Rey wants nothing to do with his money?

“I’ll just have to have him around more often,” Ben says. “Let him get to know her.”

“That’s a good idea,” she agrees. 

Which is how Ben finds himself hosting a dinner party for Hux and Phasma.

Rey, for her part, is excited at the prospect of playing hostess. As much as she and Ben love spending time together, he knows she’s glad of the opportunity to talk to other people. Other humans. And he’s relieved to have an excuse to get Hux and Rey in the same room. He’s sure that Hux had just gotten too nosy that night with Rey and she’d clammed up, or her attempt to answer his questions had seemed suspicious. He’s sure that once they talk, and with Ben there to fill in any gaps, Hux will stop suspecting her of something.

For his part, Hux acts like a perfect gentleman at first. He brings a very expensive wine and compliments the cooking.

“Rey caught the shrimp herself,” Ben says, shooting her a sly smile.

“Did she really?” Hux twists to look at her. “Are you a fisherwoman?”

“I know how to fish,” she says. “But I can’t cook. Ben does that.”

“Ben does quite a lot, doesn’t he?” Hux asks with a nasty smile.

Ben shoots him a warning glare.

Rey, who knows why Hux is here and why he might be nasty to her, doesn’t let it bother her. She reaches over to twine her hand with Ben’s. “He does a lot of things I can’t do, and I do a lot of things he can’t do. There’s a…” She chooses the right word. “Balance.”

“I’m sure there is,” Hux says with that same nasty smile. 

“May I use the restroom?” Phasma asks.

“Of course,” Ben says; he starts to show her where, but she’s been here enough times that she already knows.

After the door closes, Hux turns to Ben. “I have to use the restroom as well. Is there one upstairs?”

“Uh, sure. It’s--”

“The room with the toilet? I’ll find it.” Hux gets up, whistling as he walks up the stairs. 

Rey squeezes Ben’s hand. “You look upset.”

“I am. He’s still being...a dick.”

“Maybe he and I just won’t get along,” she says. “Let it go, Ben.”

He turns fully to her. “I don’t want to let it go. You are the most important thing to me, and the way he talks about you…”

“Let him talk.” She brushes her lips against his. “You know the truth and that’s all I care about. Let Hux think I’m after your money--it’s better than telling him the truth.”

Ben sighs. “Yeah. It is. I just…”

“You’re sweet,” she says, kissing his nose. “And you love me very much.”

“I do.”

“And I love you very much.”

“I know.” He pulls her onto his lap, where she stays even after Phasma comes back from the bathroom. If the blonde is annoyed with their antics, she does a marvelous job of hiding it.

They’re chatting about the best way to make shrimp scampi when Hux finally returns from the bathroom. 

“You fall in or something?” Ben asks, not feeling very charitable towards the other man.

“Just admiring the decor,” Hux says, sipping his wine. “Did Rey decorate the house?”

“My mother did,” Ben admits.

“Speaking of, has Rey met dear old mummy yet?”

“Hux,” Phasma warns.

Ben’s grip on Rey tightens. “Not yet.”

“Interesting.” Hux smiles over the rim of his glass. “Very interesting.”

It’s a relief to see the back of the ginger’s head at the end of the night. Ben and Rey stand on the front porch, watching Hux and Phasma get into their cars and pull away into the night.

“Fucking asshole,” Ben says as soon as Hux leaves.

“Let it go, Ben,” Rey urges, pulling him back into the house. She heads for the kitchen, cleaning up the dishes from dinner. “You’ve done what you can.”

“I know,” he grumbles. 

She abandons the dishes, wrapping her arms around him instead. “Come here, my love.”

He goes pliant under her touch, his hands threading at her waist. “You’re perfect, you know that?”

“I’ve been told,” she says with a smile.

With an easy movement, Ben spins her around. She gasps, hands smacking down on the granite countertop. He lets one hand push up the hem of her dress, the other reaching around to stroke her through her underwear. She moans prettily, hips rolling into his touch. Ben frees himself from his pants, giving his cock a few strokes before he lines himself up with her entrance. Slowly, he pushes inside her, drawing the sweetest moan from her lips. Dimly, he can see their reflections in the window, though they’re more dark shapes than actual reflections. He lowers his head, nibbling at her neck, and then pauses.

Someone’s out there.

“Ben?” 

He pulls out of her, shoving himself into his pants.

“Ben, what’s wrong?” she asks with wide eyes.

“Stay in here. Lock the doors,” he orders. He doesn’t have a gun or a baseball bat or anything remotely like a weapon, but he has his fists, and they used to do some damage back in the day. 

“Ben, what’s--”

“Someone’s in the yard,” he explains, unlocking the sliding glass door. “Please, stay in here, and do not unlock this door until I come back.” He steps outside, the night air chilly against his skin. The motion-sensing light comes on, illuminating a circle around the back door. Ben steps outside the circle, squinting in the relative dark. 

He doesn’t see anyone. Of course, if they were watching him and Rey, they probably would have hidden by now. He walks the length of the backyard, glancing back every so often at the sliding glass door. Rey stands there, arms wrapped around herself, but there is thankfully no one trying to get in. 

He walks to the the edge of the yard, where the grass turns into weeds and gives way to sand dunes, and sees no one hiding. Then again, it’s dark enough that they could be hiding in the weeds and he wouldn’t be able to see. 

He feels suddenly foolish. No one’s hiding in the weeds. It was probably a tourist who got lost, or a neighbor cutting through his yard. There are hundreds of people in the surrounding area--it doesn’t necessarily mean that someone’s trying to rob Ben’s house or abduct Rey.

He turns back to the house, feeling even more foolish when he sees the worried look on Rey’s face. 

“There’s no one out there,” he says when she unlocks the door. “Probably just a tourist wandering around or something.”

“Are you sure?” Rey asks, and he realizes she’s afraid.

He wraps his arms around her, looking down at her upturned face. “I am not gonna let anyone hurt you. I promise.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she says softly. “It’s you.”

“Me?”

“No one knows who I am. But you...you’re a very important person. There are people out there who might want you dead.”

And Ben...Ben has never really thought about it that way before. Sure, he’s known that plenty of shipping companies would like to put him out of business, but to go so far as to kill him…

Surely no one would go that far?

...would they?

“This is a tourist town,” he says. “It had to have been some out-of-towner who didn’t know their way around.”

She purses her lips. She clearly doesn’t believe him, but she isn’t going to argue about it. 

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s wash dishes and then go to bed.”

They rinse off the dishes and load them in the dishwasher, and though he pretends not to, Ben keeps glancing out the window to make sure no one is out there. No one is, but just because he can’t see anything doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

He barely sleeps that night, ears strained for every creak, every rustle, any sound that could possibly be a person. He doesn’t relax until the sun comes up, but by then he’s so tired and on edge that he feels miserable. What’s worse is that now he’s sure there was never a threat. He was just overreacting to a lost tourist. He lost sleep over something so small and stupid. 

He says as much to Rey over breakfast, but she purses her lips again.

“You think it was someone who wants to hurt me?”

“I don’t know,” she admits. “But I do know that you don’t scare easily. You don’t...overreact.”

“I did last night.”

“But what if you didn’t?” she counters. 

He sighs. “Rey, I really don’t think it was anything to worry about.”

She reaches across the table, taking his hand. “Be careful. Please.”

“I will,” he says, touched by her concern. 

She digs back into her eggs. “And take care of that money I’m supposed to be after.”

Ben laughs.

.

Ben tells Phasma about the person in his yard when he comes to work on Monday. He would tell Hux, too, except the other man called off sick.

Phasma, to Ben’s dismay, purses her lips much like Rey had. “Ben...are you sure it was just a lost tourist and not...something else?”

“You think it was someone who wants to hurt me?” he asks a bit incredulously--mostly because he can’t believe that both Rey and Phasma have had this thought. 

“I think strange people wandering your backyard is nothing to be shrugged off,” she says. “Because yes, it may have been a tourist, but it isn’t tourist season, and most of your neighbors are permanent residents, not tourists. Furthermore, you are a very wealthy and successful entrepreneur and you have little to no security around your house.”

“I don’t need it,” he defends, but Phasma, as usual, has a point. 

An unpleasant thought occurs to him: Rey. She’s either alone in the house, where someone could be planning to break in, or she’s naked and heading out to sea, which could also be very bad. Either way, she doesn’t have a phone or any way to contact him if she needs help, and he has no way to reach her.

“I need to go home,” he says. “Rey...I can’t leave her…”

Phasma nods. “Go home. I’ll look into private security.”

With trembling hands, Ben gathers his things and gets in his car, speeding for home. 

It’s probably fine, he tries to tell himself. Probably nothing bad has happened. 

Probably.

When he pulls up to his house, he’s dismayed to see another car already there. A familiar car.

The pieces begin to click together. Ben stumbles to the door, unlocking it. No one is downstairs. As he runs up the stairs, calling Rey’s name, he desperately hopes that she went out to sea this morning, that she’ll stay there, where she’s safe, where no one knows what she is.

She did not go out to sea this morning.

She’s in the bathtub, tail and all.

And sitting on the counter, smirk on face, is Hux.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I forgot to update AGAIN, we've been slammed at work.

“What are you doing here?” Ben asks harshly. 

“You know exactly what I’m doing here.” Hux slides off the counter. 

Ben glances at Rey. “Are you alright?”

“I’m okay,” she says, but her hands are gripping the rim of the bathtub so hard that her knuckles are white. 

Ben moves to stand between Rey and Hux. “How did you know?”

“I did some digging at the dinner party,” Hux says candidly. “I was expecting to find cash squirrelled away or a tourist visa with an impending expiration date--I didn’t expect to find mermaid scales in the tub.”

Ben winces. “You were the one in the yard.”

“Of course I was. I wanted to see what would happen when you thought you were alone. Nothing but rutting like animals, I’m afraid, but I was determined. I came back. I slipped in the back door and found your precious secret in the bathtub. It was so much easier than I expected.”

“What do you want?” Ben snaps.

“Five million dollars.”

Ben stares at Hux. “What the  _ fuck _ ?”

“Oh, I’m not expecting it all at once--even you aren’t that rich,” Hux says smoothly. “But I do want it over time. With interest.”

“Fuck you,” Ben laughs incredulously.

“Very well then,” Hux says with a cold smirk. “I suppose I’ll just take my video of your girlfriend to the press, see what they make of it.”

Ben pales. “They’ll never believe you.”

“Oh, come now, I think we both know there’s too much evidence not to reveal the truth,” the ginger says smugly.

Ben lunges forward, grabbing Hux’s phone; he throws it in the bathtub, where it sinks with a plop. The other man simply laughs. “Did you really think I didn’t back it up and save it to multiple locations?”

Ben hesitates, and that’s all the pause Hux needs to step back, straightening his suit jacket. “Five million, or this video goes to the press.” 

He leaves the room, whistling. 

Ben turns to Rey. There are tears in her eyes. 

“I know what you have to do,” she says thickly. 

“I’m not selling you out,” he says, getting on his knees and wrapping his arms around her. 

“You have to,” she whispers. “Or he’ll never leave you alone.”

“I can give him five million. Over time.”

“Ben, I don’t know how much that is,” she admits. “But I know it’s a lot, and I also know that if you start giving him money, he won’t stop asking for it. He’ll just keep coming back and threatening us.” She takes a deep breath. “I have to go. I can’t let you pay him, and if he tells anyone what I am...I can’t be here when they find out. I have to go back to the sea.”

Ben feels his heart break. “No,” he says firmly. “No, you can’t leave.”

“I have to. It’s the only way,” she says softly.

“I’m not letting you go,” he says in an even firmer tone. “I love you. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m not going to lose you because of  _ Hux _ . I’ll pay him off forever, I don’t care.”

“I can’t let you live like that.” She strokes his hair. “Ben…”

“There’s got to be a way around this.” He strokes her hand. “There’s  _ got _ to.”

“We could always kill him,” she deadpans.

“It’s not a bad idea…”

“Ben!”

“What? We live in a coastal area, he could...have an accident.” He glances at the phone at the bottom of the tub. “I wonder if he was bluffing.”

“Bluffing?”

“Lying,” he explains. “Like, if he  _ said _ he backed up the video and saved it to multiple locations but was lying so that I’d give him five million dollars.”

Her eyes widen. “You think he might not have a video.”

He takes a deep breath. “There’s only one way to find out.” 

Rey rests her hand on top of his. “Do it.”

.

When Ben goes into work the next day, he strides right into Hux’s office, closing the door behind him. 

“So?” Hux asks, leaning back in his seat. “Have you made a decision yet?”

“I have. I’m not paying you five million dollars.”

Hux smiles. “I had a feeling you might say that. Which is why I made a deal with First Order Labs.”

Ben frowns. “First Order Labs?”

“Oh, don’t you know? They’re an extremely sophisticated marine biology lab. They were  _ very _ interested in Rey.”

Ben feels his pulse quicken. “You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?” Hux pulls out his phone. With a lurch, Ben realizes that it’s a new phone. Hux holds up the screen, showing Ben the video of Rey thrashing in the tub, screaming at him. He still has it. 

“I wouldn’t leave her alone, if I were you,” Hux continues, pocketing his phone. “Oh well. Too late now.”

“What do you mean?” Ben asks sharply.

Hux looks like the cat who caught the canary. “Go and see for yourself.”

Ben tears out the door, running out to his car. For the second time in as many days, he rushes home and finds someone else already there. It’s an unmarked van, but before the doors close, Ben catches a glimpse inside, where Rey lies in a tank, hair fanning out around her as her mouth opens in a scream.

The doors slam shut and Ben shouts, “ _ REY _ !”

But the van pulls away and carries Rey with it.


	10. Chapter 10

Dopheld Mitaka has been working at First Order Labs for two months--so when they assign him to the mermaid, he’s stunned. He’s not so churlish as to think he isn’t a brilliant young biologist, because he knows he is, but getting assigned to the mermaid is a Very Big Deal. 

There have been rumors in the scientific community for years. No one believed them, of course, but every so often you’d hear of a woman with a fin discovered by people who hadn’t known the proper protocol. Not that Dopheld can blame them; even he doesn’t know the proper protocol for handling a mermaid. No one does, apparently. They keep her in a clear tank to observe her; twice a day they pour dead fish into her tank to feed her. They keep her heavily monitored, checking her vitals every few hours. They draw blood from both her human side and her fish side and even yank some scales for samples. It will tell them a lot about her biology and makeup, and it may help them understand the evolution of mermaids. 

The mermaid in question is a pretty thing. Her chestnut hair fans around her underwater, her eyes gazing soulfully at him from behind the glass. If he gets close enough, he can see the freckles on her face. Her fin is long and golden, the scales shimmering in the lab’s fluorescent lights. Her fan-tails are translucent, fluttering in the water, and overall she is one of the loveliest creatures Dopheld has ever seen.

He’s only a junior researcher, one assigned to monitor her actions at night when she and everyone else are sleeping, but it’s enough. It’s closer than he ever thought he’d get to a scientific discovery. 

On his third night watching the mermaid, he looks down at his watch and looks up when he hears water move. The mermaid has her arms propped on the top of the tank, looking down at him.

“Get down,” he says, unnerved. He’s never had to speak to her before. 

“Why?” she asks with serious eyes.

He blinks. “Because...you could climb out.”

“And do what? Flop around on the floor?”

He turns pink. 

“What’s your name?” she asks.

“Dr. Mitaka,” he says after a moment’s deliberation, because really, what can it hurt if she knows his name?

“My name’s Rey.” Then she smiles. “Well, that’s my  _ English _ name. My real name is,” and she lets out a dolphin-like shriek.

“Interesting,” he says, scribbling this down on his pad. “What language is that?”

“I don’t know. It’s how merpeople talk.”

“How many of you are there?” he asks, wondering if anyone else has extracted this information from her.

“Why? So you can capture the rest of us?”

His pen hovers above his pad. 

The mermaid-- _ Rey _ \--thrashes the water with her tail, her face suddenly angry. “I want to see Ben.”

“Who’s Ben?” he asks, genuinely confused.

“Ben Solo! My boyfriend!”

Dopheld chokes on a laugh. “You have a boyfriend?”

Her eyes flash. “I do. I was living with him in Kill Devil Hills before you came and kidnapped me.”

He doesn’t laugh at that. “You’re...a scientific anomaly...we had to understand--”

“So you took me from my home and the person I love?” She thrashes her tail again. “It isn’t right, what you’re doing. I’m a person. Just because I have a tail doesn’t mean I can’t think and talk and feel things.”

He opens his mouth to reply, but Rey drops back into the water and circles her tank with a furious energy, her powerful tail sending water sloshing against the glass.

It’s the first time that Dopheld questions what they’re doing here at First Order.

.

Over the next few nights, Dopheld watches Rey carefully. She spends most of her nights sleeping, though sometimes she’ll swim despondently in her tank. In the rare moments that they make eye contact, she looks so sad that it makes him gasp.

She eats less during the day--or so he assumes, because there are more and more fish in her tank. Her color starts to change; she grows pale, her fin collects dead skin that trails after her like a spiderweb. She looks miserable, and Dopheld starts to feel sick. 

When his shift ends on the tenth night, he decides to do something. He goes to Snoke’s office, determined to speak to the old man about her condition. Surely they could give her some stimulation, some company,  _ something _ . Maybe they could even let her see Ben again.

As he stands outside Snoke’s office, waiting to speak to the other man, he hears Snoke talking to one of the other biologists. 

“...deal with SeaWorld, but I think we could do something much more profitable. An exhibit for the only mermaid in the world.”

“What if there are others?”

“Then we catch them and make an aquarium solely for mermaids. Imagine how much people will pay to see one.”

Dopheld feels his mouth fall open in shock. He’d known it was unlikely that they’d release Rey anytime soon, if ever--she’s far too important of a scientific discovery. But to use her as a money-making attraction…

Quietly, Dopheld slips away. He can’t let this happen. He won’t. 

.

In his house in Kill Devil Hills, Ben Solo sits on his couch nursing a glass of bourbon. Phasma sits across from him, sipping at her own drink.

This has become a routine for them; Ben moping, Phasma sitting quietly nearby. She doesn’t know what else to do for him. Almost two weeks ago, he’d lost the woman he loves, probably forever. It had been a shock for sure, but once Phasma had gotten over it, she’d made Ben her priority. The man is a wreck; barely able to eat or sleep or do anything other than drink his sorrows away. She can hardly blame him; it’s quite a blow he’s been landed.

Hux hasn’t been seen since that fateful day, and Phasma can’t blame him for that, either, since she’s sure Ben would murder the other man if given the opportunity. She imagines he’s trying to lay low before starting his next business venture with the money First Order Labs gave him.

Bastard.

The company will be fine; she’s made sure of that. But Ben, she fears, will never recover.

The doorbell startles both of them. 

“Who the fuck?” Phasma wants to know, standing up. It’s early on a Saturday morning, and she can only imagine that whoever’s at the door brings trouble. “I’ll get it,” she offers, squeezing Ben’s shoulder.

She opens the door to reveal a short man with black hair closely cropped to his head and the most nervous expression she’s ever seen. She leans against the doorframe, hand on hip. “Can I help you?”

The man draws in a deep breath. “I’d like to see Ben Solo.”

“Who are you?” she demands.

Another deep breath. “I work for First Order Labs. I’ve seen Rey.”

Phasma debates for a long moment, eyeing him. “Wait here.” She closes the door and goes to the living room. “Ben? There’s a man here who says he’s from First Order. He says he’s seen Rey.”

Ben sits up, his red-rimmed eyes showing the first signs of sobriety. “I want to see him,” he says hoarsely.

She nods, going back to the front door. The man is still standing there, practically trembling.

“You can come in.”

“Thank you.” He follows her inside, where she takes him to the living room.

“Drink?”

“N-no thank you.” He and Ben regard each other for a moment.

“Mr. Solo, I’m Dr. Dopheld Mitaka,” he says at last. “I work for First Order Labs; I have the night shift watching Rey.”

“Watching her?” Ben asks, hands clenching into fists.

Dopheld winces. “Yes. We keep her heavily monitored. May I sit?”

Ben grunts. Dopheld perches on the edge of a chair. “Mr. Solo, I will be honest with you--when they first brought in Rey, I thought of her as a scientific discovery and not a person. I was excited for the opportunity and never thought about the life she lived and how it was being taken from her.” He takes another deep breath. He does a lot of that, Phasma notices. “She’s not doing well, Mr. Solo. Her health is declining. And this morning I overheard the owner talking about opening an exhibit with her as the starring attraction.”

Ben’s hands clench again. “Like fuck he will!”

“I agree,” Dopheld says quickly. “Rey deserves more than a life in a tank. She deserves a  _ life _ . And I want to help her get hers back.”

Ben regards him suspiciously. “What did you have in mind?”

Dopheld shifts in his seat. “I want to sneak her out of the facility.”

“How?”

“That’s what I came here to talk about,” he admits. “I don’t have a set plan, but...I think I can work something out. With your help.”

“Won’t you get in trouble for this?” Phasma asks.

Dopheld shrugs. “If it means Rey doesn’t have to die in a tank while hoards of tourists watch...that’s fine with me.”

Ben considers him for a long moment. Though he’s been drunk for the last ten days, Phasma can finally see the haze clearing. “Why should I trust you?”

“I don’t have a good reason,” Dopheld admits. “I really don’t. Just my word that I want to help.”

Ben gets up, pacing. “What do you think you can work out? How do you want to do this?”

Dopheld leans back in his seat. “How’s your Swedish?”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are - the end!
> 
> I truthfully did not think anyone was going to read this bizarre fic when I started it, and the fact that so many of you did anyway warms the cockles of my heart. Thank you for coming with me on this journey <3

Dopheld is surprised to find that he has more clearance at First Order than he’d originally thought. He summons all his courage and calmly explains to the security guard at the gate that he’s bringing visitors from the Swedish institute. 

The normally brusque security guard, afraid that he missed the memo about the Swedish visitors, quickly grants them entrance, stuttering out a, “Have a nice day!”

From there, they visit the front desk, where Dopheld informs another security guard that the visitors from Sweden are here. This security guard is more wary than the first, so Dopheld makes a fuss about how embarrassing it is, didn’t they know the Swedish doctors were  _ expected _ , what is Snoke going to say when he finds out?

“No problem!” the security guard squeaks, hastily printing out visitor badges. The badges get them through the turnstiles. Dopheld makes a show of explaining the facility to his impassive guests, who do little more than nod as they take in their surroundings. 

The final hurdle is the security guard stationed outside the room with Rey’s tank. 

“These are Doctors Jared and Johansson from the Swedish institute,” Dopheld says, and it’s at this last stage that his confidence begins to crack. 

The security guard blanches. “Dr. Snoke said no one aside from authorized personnel was permitted to go in--”

“They  _ are _ authorized personnel,” Dopheld says in his most impatient voice. 

The security guard swallows. “No one told me anything about this.”

“Oh, we have to run everything by you, do we?” Dopheld snaps.

The guard winces. “No…?” He steps closer to Dopheld and whispers, “Doesn’t that one look a little... _ dark _ for a Swede?”

Ben is prepared for this moment. He turns to Phasma and, with a serious face, says the only speech in a foreign language that he knows. 

“ _ Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, borei p’ri hagafen. Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’ratzah vanu, v’Shabbat kodsho b’ahavah uv’ratzon hinchilanu, zikaron l’maaseih v’reishit. Ki hu yom t’chilah l’mikra-ei kodesh, zecher litziat Mitzrayim. Ki vanu vacharta, v’otanu kidashta, mikol haamim. V’Shabbat kodsh’cha b’ahavah uv’ratzon hinchaltanu. Baruch atah, Adonai, m’kadeish haShabbat.” _

The security guard still looks suspicious, so Dopheld says, “What do you think we’re going to do, kidnap the mermaid?”

The guard’s shoulders sag. “Right, I’m sorry Dr. Mitaka...you can go right in.”

Dopheld leads Ben and Phasma into the room, and it’s all Ben can do to restrain himself once he sees Rey. He waits for the door to close and then runs to the tank, pressing his hands against the glass. She presses her hands to the glass too, her lips forming his name.

Dopheld leads Ben and Phasma up to the platform, where Rey surfaces to meet them. Ben pulls her up and onto the platform, kissing her soundly.

“We have to hurry,” Dopheld says gently. “The cameras…”

“What’s going on?” Rey asks.

“We’re getting you out of here,” Ben tells her. “Just trust us, okay?”

“I trust you,” Rey says.

Ben and Phasma wrap her in towels.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Ben asks Phasma. 

“Of course. Get her out of here,” Phasma says firmly.

Ben nods, and then he and Dopheld carry Rey off the platform and then out of the room.

“Holy shit!” Dopheld shouts as he and Ben adopt a frantic air. The security guard leaps to attention, eyes wide. “The mermaid’s lethal!” 

“Lethal?” the security guard echoes, eyes growing even wider. 

“She shot lasers out of her eyes! Killed Dr. Johansson!”

“ _ Lasers _ ?” the guard repeats, eyes so wide they threaten to pop out of his head. 

“I’ll deal with Snoke--you make sure no one else gets in!” Dopheld shouts as he and Ben carry Rey down the hall. They move with such purpose that everyone else leaps out of the way. Not one person stops them from carrying Rey all the way out to the parking lot, where they load her in the backseat of the car with Ben. Dopheld gets behind the steering wheel and speeds out of the parking lot.

“You okay?” Ben asks, pulling off the towel wrapped around Rey’s head. 

She smiles at him. “I’m better than I’ve been since they took me away.”

He kisses her, long and lingering. Dopheld tries not to watch, but it’s hard when they’re  _ right _ in the rearview mirror. They clearly love each other very much. How could Snoke want to keep her in a tank and let people ogle her like an animal?

Dopheld takes the highway and drives them off Roanoke Island, heading for Jennette’s Pier. “You’ll have to go back to the ocean,” he tells Rey, but he suspects she already knows as much. “It isn’t safe for you to stay here.”

“I know,” she says, looking at Ben.

Ben’s eyes are sad. “Rey,” he murmurs, “you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I am going to miss you...so much.”

Rey bites her lip. “What if you didn’t have to miss me?”

Ben frowns. “What do you mean?” 

“Remember when you were nine and you fell in the ocean?” she asks. “And I was there, and we held hands?”

“Of course I remember.”

“You were fine underwater, remember?” she asks earnestly. “You could breathe. You were with me.”

“Rey,” Ben says, looking shocked, “are you saying...I can live underwater as long as I’m with you?!”

“How is that  _ possible _ ?” Dopheld, a scientist through and through, has to ask. 

“Mermaids used to save drowning sailors,” she explains. “I don’t know how it works, it just...does.” Her smile fades. “But...it would mean giving up everything. I...I wouldn’t ask you to do it, it’s only...if you wanted to--”

Dopheld glances in the rearview mirror. “Uh-oh,” he says. “We’ve got company.”

Ben and Rey twist around to see a black armored van following them. Dopheld picks up the speed, rushing to the pier. A police car soon joins the armored van, but Dopheld keeps driving, hands sweating and heart pounding. This is the most exhilarating thing he’s ever done.

He skids to a stop in front of the pier. Rey, whose human legs have grown back (such a  _ fascinating _ piece of her biology--Dopheld wishes he could have studied her more), follows Ben out of the car, unashamed of her nakedness. Dopheld watches them exchange a few words, he holding her in his arms. And then they join hands, run, and leap into the water. 

Dopheld watches with stinging eyes, smiling when they disappear below the waves. The armored van and police car skid to a stop beside him. He’ll probably get arrested. He’ll definitely get fired and may never be allowed to work in his field again.

That’s just fine with him.

.

Below the water, Rey helps Ben shug out of his lab coat and tie. They kiss for a long moment, Rey breathing life into Ben. He takes a deep lungful of water as easily as air. Rey takes his hand and leads him deeper into the ocean. 


End file.
